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PLANS for one of the country’s longest and most expensive motorways linking Cork and Limerick will be lodged with An Bord Pleanála today.
The €1 billion M20 project features:
* 80 kilometres of dual divided motorway.
* 6km of dual carriageway.
* 45km of associated national, regional and local roads
* A motorway service area at Lissard, near Rathduff.
* 46 road bridges, eight river bridges and two railway bridges.
* 33 structures for land or farm access, and 36 major culverts.
Land values along the proposed route and construction costs have not been finalised. But the M3 from Clonee, west of Dublin, to Kells, which is 20km longer and due to open in July, will cost some €1bn.
The M20 will start at the existing Blarney junction and will remain online with the existing N20 to Mourneabbey. The proposed route will then veer east from the existing N20 passing east of Mallow and Buttevant. It will rejoin the existing N20 for about 2km at Velvetstown before again veering to the east.
It will cross the N20 just south of Ballyhea, pass west of Charleville and continue west of the existing N20 until the Croom bypass.
Most of the bypass will be reutilised as part of the new development and the new scheme will terminate near the existing junction at Attyflin, Co Limerick. An oral hearing on the proposed route will be held this summer and subject to funding, construction could start before the end of 2011. The project is being coordinated by Cork County Council and Limerick County Council, with the support of the National Roads Authority.
When the corridor scheme is complete, Cork and Galway will be linked by some 200km of motorway.
Interesting to see a motorway for AADT in design year (in parts) as high as 60,000 and also as low as 10,000. I wonder how affordable it is? - certainly more so as it's planned as a PFI scheme although the BCR's struggle to get above 2.
My uneducated guess would say that if it is a PFI (I think Ireland calls them PPP schemes) that mainline tolling will be applied on the busier sections to effectively subsidise the quieter bits? Or would the reverse apply?
Either way I'd expect it will be tolled. Does Ireland even have the funds to commit to huge infrastructure projects via the public purse anymore?
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
Actually I think the plan is shadow tolling - i.e. basically the State is renting the motorway? As far as I know this is what is also to be used for the M18/M17 and the Newlands Cross GSJ/N11 Arklow-Rathnew PPP bundle.
As for being able to pay - well, it's basically spreading out a higher overall cost for the project over decades, so not so much of an issue unless too many such projects end up on the annual payroll. I think the idea is that the government doesn't have the entire chunk of debt on the books that outright financing would cost. However, a big issue still is getting finance regardless of the project being private rather than public, someone has to stump up the immediate cash to pay the contractors. There may still be appetite for these PPPs though if it's basically guaranteed income from the government.
Also, it's apparently now planned to build the southern section first, which cuts the cost a bit again. I'd like to see the entire motorway ASAP, but at least with the southern section built, the lower traffic northern section is likely to go ahead eventually (motorway either end of a poor rural S2).
The current N20 is a severe bottleneck, and effectively isolates Cork and Limerick from each other (the indirect rail connection has the same effect).
This scheme is badly needed, and should have been in the major interurbans list from the start. Easier travel between the western cities will help to pull investment out of the orbit of Dublin.
Now, rejoining Cork and Limerick by a direct rail service would be good (from Charleville north into Limerick city, and onward to Galway)
Village to oppose plans for motorway ‘monstrosity’
By Eoin English
Friday, June 25, 2010
A VILLAGE intends to fight plans to build one of the country’s longest sections of elevated motorway just yards from its quiet main street.
Ballyhea residents in north Cork have hired an expert to fight their case at an oral hearing on the planned 80km motorway between Cork and Limerick.
The estimated €1 billion M20 project, one of the longest and most expensive motorways planned in the country, features:
* 80km of dual divided motorway;
* 6km of dual carriageway;
* 45km of associated national, regional and local roads;
* 46 road bridges, eight river bridges and two railway bridges.
However, the people of Ballyhea, on the border between Cork and Limerick, are objecting to plans to build a 530-metre long elevated section of the motorway just a few hundred metres west of their village.
It will be built on stilts in an area prone to flooding from the nearby Awbeg River and will be up to 11 metres high in places. It is the biggest structure on the proposed motorway.
Ian Ronan, secretary of the Ballyhea Community Council Road Action Group, said the elevated section is unnecessary because alternative routes are available. "This monstrosity of a structure will destroy our little village forever more," he said.
"Our village is currently segregated by the railway line on the east of the village and the N20 which runs through the centre of our village and now it is proposed to have the M20 motorway on the west side ofthe village. This, effectively, will split our community entirely.
"We, as a community, are not against the motorway. What we are completely against is a structure that will seriously affect the amenities and quality of life."
He said alternative routes exist but his group has been unable to find out whether detailed cost/benefit analysis have been conducted on these alternatives.
"Surely an alternative route around our parish should have been examined in greater detail, given the destruction it will cause to our parish," he said.
The group has written to Environment Minister John Gormley pointing out the fact it is proposed to build the elevated section on a flood plain.
"We have all seen the devastation caused by construction on flood plains in the recent past," he said.
The Bord Pleanála oral hearing into the project is due to get under way at the Charleville Park Hotel on July 7.
The people of Buttevant plan to present a case for the construction of a slip road to link their town to the proposed M20.
Under the current NRA plan, access to Buttevant would be at slip roads either at Mallow or Charleville, which are both just over 11km from the town.
This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, June 25, 2010
Bord Pleanala ruling on Limerick to Cork motorway due next month
A DECISION in relation to the An Bord Pleanala oral hearing into the M20 Limerick to Cork motorway is due next month.
Hundreds of concerned residents attended the two-week hearing before inspector Danny O'Connor in Charleville Park Hotel last July.
The hearing was told that around 400 objections were received by An Bord Pleanala in relation to the construction of the motorway and Adare bypass. The oral hearing into Adare bypass was conducted in conjunction with the M20 hearing.
"Subject to a successful outcome to the statutory procedures, and subject also to availability of funding, major construction works could get underway on the scheme early in 2012," said Kieran Lehane of the National Road Design Office.
It is anticipated that the southern half of the scheme, extending from Killeens near Cork city to Velvetstown townland north of Buttevant, will be progressed first as a single contract.
The proposed M20, which it is estimated will cost j1bn, will see the building of approximately 80km of road from Killeens near Cork to Patrickswell. The proposed route will cross the N20 just south of Ballyhea, pass west of Charleville and continue west of the existing N20 to Croom bypass. The majority of Croom bypass will be reutilised as part of the new road, and the new scheme will finish near the existing junction at Attyflin.
In addition to the motorway, the project will include nine grade separated junctions, over 64km of national, regional and local roads, a number of railway, river and local road crossings, and a motorway service area.
PEOPLE living in a north Cork town are celebrating victory after successfully persuading the authorities to give them a direct access route to a planned €800 million motorway.
The motorway’s planners had decided not to provide a junction to Buttevant, which was to be the only town along the 80km Cork-Limerick motorway not have a connection to the road.
However, townsfolk mobilised and presented a forceful argument for a connection when they put their case to a lengthy oral hearing held by Bord Pleanála last July.
They said that such a decision would have put the town at a huge economic disadvantage, especially as the proposed nearest junction connections were to be at Charleville and Mallow, both of which are about 10km from Buttevant.
They also pointed out that the objective of the County Development Plan (CDP) was to reverse the town’s population decline.
It stands at just more than 900, but the CDP envisages this will rise to 1,500 by 2020.
McCutcheon Mulcahy consultants acting for locals stressed that the lack of a proper motorway connection would stifle population growth and industrial development.
The board of Bord Pleanála has now written to motorway planners telling them to build a junction which will serve Buttevant and nearby Doneraile.
The board has also asked the road designers to submit plans for the interchange and other minor alterations as soon as possible.
Solicitor Matt Nagle, chairman of the group which fought for the junction link, said he "hugely welcomed" the decision.
"We saw the provision of such a junction as absolutely critical for the future viability and development of Buttevant and its hinterland and put enormous time and resources into making that case at the oral hearing held on the M20," Mr Nagle said.
"This decision is a great outcome for the town and for rural areas generally. It recognises that motorways should serve and benefit all the community, urban and rural, large and small," he added.
Deputy Ned O’Keeffe, who backed the people of Buttevant at the oral hearing, said he welcomed the news.
"This is a vote of confidence in people power in Buttevant and Doneraile," Deputy O’Keeffe said.
This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, January 06, 2011
Normally I am opposed to littering motorways with excess junctions, but if it really is 10km to the next nearest exit it doesn't seem like an unreasonable suggestion to add one at Buttevant. Over such a huge distance it's not going to cause any new congestion or weaving issues.
nirs wrote:Normally I am opposed to littering motorways with excess junctions, but if it really is 10km to the next nearest exit it doesn't seem like an unreasonable suggestion to add one at Buttevant. Over such a huge distance it's not going to cause any new congestion or weaving issues.
Particularly as the road south of Buttevant towards Cork City is possibly the worst quality of national primary route in Ireland. Not providing a Motorway junction would keep the traffic through this eeltrack section high.
After reading the above two posts, I have to say I've come down off the fence and decided I'm also in favour of this junction. Kudos to the burghers of Buttevant in this case!
Disgrace that this wont be touched until 2015 earliest.
We've got the same issues up North now Chris... The not even motorway connection between Ireland's 2nd and 4th Cities aint going to be touched until 2015 either.
Design team has just been appointed for this scheme and also to take it through the planning process over the next 2 years.
It will be 100km total and include at least one section of the Cork Northern Ring (M40) between Blarney and the M8. A new route has to be selected but will be broadly similar to the previous corridor.
Why they can't just use the existing planned corridor is beyond me.
Here is my hilarious crude drawing
(I have the extension to the M21 at the northern end on that - this scheme is much more advanced and EIS about to be submitted)
How these major works are funded would be an interesting read, with a population of under 5 million ROI's M/way network is highly enviable, here in Scotland we will have to wait till hell freezes over [ or Independance and lots of luvvly Eurodosh ] before we get a motorway between our 2nd city and the 3rd and 4th cities.
